Saorise Ronan's heavenly surprise in 'Lovely Bones'

The 15-year-old actress plays murdered teenager Susie Salmon in the director's adaptation of 'The Lovely Bones' — based on a novel by Akice Sebold — and admits she was delighted when she first saw his vision of life beyond the grave.

She said: "It was a little bit surreal at first because it was all blue screen and I hadn't worked with that much blue screen before. And most of heaven was going to be put in afterwards. So, it was sometimes difficult to try and imagine what it was going to be like, what it was going to look like. I saw the movie a few days ago and it was a lovely surprise to finally see heaven."

The original novel features Susie being raped by her killer, but the graphic scene has been omitted from the movie, which Saorise believes makes it stronger. She added to the Badger Herald newspaper:

"If anything, the absence of the rape scene makes the movie stronger because I think it's kind of the easy route to put that kind of scene in. "It can make people uncomfortable. It can make people too disturbed. The tasteful way to do it, I think, is to just leave it up to the audience's imagination and to let them think of it for themselves, and sometimes that can even be stronger. So, no, I don't think it took away from the story at all."